FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WARREN LITTLEFIELD - PAGE 3

In the wake of the U.S. bombing of Iraq, NBC delivered its own pre-emptive strike here yesterday. As NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield announced that Late Night host David Letterman would leave the network in June and join CBS, the Tonight Show's Jay Leno roared into the news conference ballroom on a huge red Harley- Davidson motorcycle. Leno had said for weeks that he would quit NBC if the network gave his job to Letterman, who desperately wanted the 11:30 p.m. time slot.

July 10, 1992 | By Gail Shister Inquirer television critic Jonathan Storm contributed to this article

Seinfeld will become even more like Seinfeld this season. The hit NBC sitcom, which stars droll standup Jerry Seinfeld as himself, will feature a continuing storyline in which he negotiates with NBC for his own series, the comedian told TV critics here yesterday. The plot will begin with the Aug. 12 third-season opener and continue through at least five episodes. It could run the entire 22 segments, says Seinfeld, also the show's producer. "We don't know where it's going, but as long as it can live, we'll do it. " Jason Alexander, who plays sad-sack George, takes over Seinfeld's negotiations without telling him. During the process, he gets the hots for an NBC executive.

Reliving her former abusive relationship on film was no trip to the beach for reigning Miss America Carolyn Suzanne Sapp. "It was very difficult to play the scenes, and this is the first time I've seen it," said Sapp, wiping away tears during a preview of Miss America: Behind the Crown at the TV critics' press tour here Friday. The NBC docudrama airs Sept. 21, two days after the 1992 Miss America pageant, also on NBC. Crown, starring the Hawaiian Sapp as herself, opens with her winning the title.

If we don't want "I'll Fly Away" to do just that, it's time to put our tuners where our mouths are, quality-TV fans. Rumored to be at death's door for the last couple of weeks, the low-rated NBC series set in embryonic Southern civil-rights days got an 11th-hour mini- reprieve Friday. In response to a viewer protest campaign launched by the influential Viewers for Quality Television, outraged TV press and ads the network itself actually commissioned begging people to watch, "I'll Fly Away" nosed up from No. 87 to No. 67 in the ratings last week.

Most of the excitement on NBC this spring will come from the network's news division, which is adding several new and almost-new programs to the network lineup. Two, "Real Life with Jane Pauley" and "Expose," took their places in the prime-time schedule on Sunday night. A new daily daytime program, "A Closer Look," begins Jan. 28. NBC unveiled just a handful of new prime-time drama or comedy series for the spring: "Blossom," which debuted last week; "Dark Shadows," premiering with a miniseries next weekend; and "Sisters," for which no air date has been chosen.

Maybe it was an omen. Tom Sarnoff had an idea that he took to NBC, the network founded by his father, the late David Sarnoff. The idea was a revival of one of NBC's greatest hits, Bonanza, centering on a new, young generation of TV's famous western clan and set in the early 1900s. It would be called Bonanza: Legends of the Ponderosa, and Sarnoff and the creator of the original series, David Dortort, would be co-executive producers of the weekly drama. Maybe a great idea.

Nona Hendryx may be small in size (5-foot-4), but when it comes to voicing her opinion on subjects such as freedom, poverty and hunger, her intensity makes her appear much taller. Hendryx has been nominated for a Grammy award (the ceremony is to be televised Feb. 25 on Channel 10) for her hit single "Rock This House," and was heavily involved in the recording end of "Sun City," the album that, through song, calls for a change in the racist policies of South Africa. Hendryx, formerly part of the group "LaBelle," which featured Patti LaBelle as lead singer, says her involvement with the Sun City album was a labor of love.

So here's this overgrown kid, all sprawled legs and arms, seeming to fill every corner of the tiny NBC office. Electric green-and-white tank top, big shorts, Air Jordans, baseball cap cocked at a goofy angle, a gold chain around his neck that says "Fresh Prince. " This is Will Smith. This is the guy who's single-handedly going to guarantee success for the network this fall? You'd better believe it. "It's real easy to look at Will as Silly Willy," says Susan Borowitz, one of the co-writers of his series, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which premieres at 8 tonight on Channel 3. Smith is only 21, and until now has worked only as a rap singer, though a very successful one, as half of D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.

"News" magazines: Who knows whom they're fooling? An examination of 12 installments of Dateline NBC, 20/20, 48 Hours and 60 Minutes from Nov. 11 through Wednesday revealed instances of exaggeration, deception and hyperbole so bald-faced that it's hard to imagine even the most naive viewer falling for the bait. There was, however, a wide variation in content and style, not just among the shows, but within the shows. All the programs were short on facts, but some offered stirring and, yes, emotional entertainment.

There's a buzzing out here in the entertainment business, like the drone of traffic that disappears only at predawn hours in the deepest canyons of this automobile-mad city. The noise emanates from all around, but the topic is always the same: The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and a perceived hardball attitude that has left NBC veterans without jobs, curtailed guest appearances, sent one rival talk-show host into a public paroxysm of bitterness, and helped knock another one off the air. The whispers and outcries - many more whispers than pronouncements - talk of dirty tricks and ruthlessness.